For more information about
this list, please see the introduction, linked below.
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WH-Z
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You can download the entire list in a single PDF.
Clicking on the link below will open a Google Docs page displaying the entire
list in PDF. To save a copy of the PDF, just click on the little down arrow in
the upper left. You can also print the list from the Google Docs page, but be
warned that it now weighs in at 472 pages!
[Current total: 2,103 writers]
UPDATED 10/11/2019
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(née Semple)
1920s – 1960s
Author of nearly 20 works
of fiction for adults and children. These include two related titles, Lilias Next-Door (1924) and Lilias Goes to School (1928), the
latter a school story. Other children's titles are Into the Picture Screen, or, The Time of Enchantment (1931), Summer with the Morrisons (1954), and Always the Wetherby Girls (1966). Her
novels for adults appear to have romantic themes, and include Devices and Desires (1926), Single-Handed (1931), A Candle of Understanding (1947), and Love Has Many Tongues (1964). Wheatley
also published a biography, The Life
and Work of Harriet Martineau (1957).
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WHEELER,
MARGARET (dates unknown)
1920s
Untraced author of one
novel, The Amazing Padre (1924),
which sounds like a rather feisty adventure/romance, and one girls' school
story One Term at School (1925).
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WHETTER,
LAURA (21 Aug 1903 - 1960)
(married name Mannock)
1930s – 1950s
Author of more than two
dozen romantic novels, including Empty
of Heart (1934), Stolen Thunder
(1936), A Star Danced (1940), Sunlight Sonata (1942), Dust for Dreams (1946), Whither Thou Goest (1952), Eve Without Her Eden (1953), and Bachelor Gay (1959).
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Whibley, Polly
see JAMES, PAULINE M.
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WHIPPLE, AMY
(26 Mar 1854 – 18 Apr 1940)
1900s – 1930s
Author of more than 20
children's books, many with religious themes. Titles include The Children of the Crag (1913), Winning the Prize (1917), Two Pairs and an Old (1923), Dr. Appleby's Daughters (1925), and Purple-Splendour Island (1933).
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WHIPPLE,
DOROTHY (26 Feb 1893 – 14 Sept 1966)
(née Stirrup)
1920s – 1960s
Popular
novelist whose works have been revived by Persephone and has become their
bestselling author. She published 12 volumes of fiction for adults and four
more for children. Her eight full-length novels are Young Anne (1927), High
Wages (1930), Greenbanks
(1932), They Knew Mr. Knight
(1934), The Priory (1939), They Were Sisters (1943), Because of the Lockwoods (1949), and Someone at a Distance (1953). The
last, widely considered her best, is the tragic, lovely tale of a happy
marriage destroyed and a woman's efforts to rebuild her life in the
aftermath. It's also highly evocative of the immediate postwar years. The Priory is set during the leadup to
the war, and includes a poignant scene in which a pregnant woman imagines her
chances of surviving a bombing raid. (As a side note, E. M. Delafield's Provincial Lady in Wartime, published
the following year, recommends The
Priory to a friend as the perfect wartime reading.) And Hugh Walpole said
of Greenbanks that it contained
"some of the best creation of living men and women that we have had for
a number of years in the English novel." Whipple's four other volumes of
fiction include the novella Every Good Deed
(1946) and three story collections, which have been recombined by Persephone
into two new volumes, The Closed Door
and Other Stories (2007) and Every
Good Deed and Other Stories (2016). She also published a memoir of her
childhood, The Other Day (1950),
and Random Commentary
(1966), subtitled "Books and Journals Kept from 1925 Onwards" and
compiled from her working notebooks. The latter's first half contains
glimpses of her earliest successes as an author, as well as the trials and
concerns of day-to-day life, while the second half is composed of her
impressions of wartime life. After her final novel got a disappointingly
lukewarm reaction, she published four children's titles. I've written about
Whipple several times—see here.
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Whistler, Mary
see POLLOCK, IDA [JULIE]
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WHISTLER, THERESA [THOMASIN DOLIGNON] (23 Apr 1927 –
20 Jul 2007)
(née Furse)
1950s, 1980s
Best known for her biography of Walter de la Mare, Imagination of the Heart (1993), she
had earlier written two children's books, The
River Boy (1955), which she also illustrated, and Rushavenn Time (1988). She apparently married her brother-in-law
a few years after her sister's premature death.
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WHITAKER, MALACHI (23 Sept 1895 – 7 Jan 1976)
(pseudonym of Marjorie Olive Whitaker, née Taylor,
aka Ethel Firebrace [with Gay TAYLOR])
1920s – 1930s
Wildly acclaimed yet enigmatic author of four story
collections—Frost in April (1929), No Luggage? (1930), Five for Silver (1932), and Honeymoon (1934). Vita SACKVILLE-WEST
compared her to Katherine Mansfield. In 1937, she published a humorous work
in collaboration with Gay TAYLOR called The
Autobiography of Ethel Firebrace, purportedly the memoir of a
self-absorbed best-selling author of delicate sensibilities—see here. She published a memoir, And So Did I (1939), described by ODNB: "Narrated in her crisp and conversational style, it is
a frank if fragmented account of life just before the outbreak of the Second
World War. Like her short stories it is poised on a knife edge." In the
same year, despite all the acclaim she had received, she announced she had
nothing further to say, and thereafter published no new work. Her Selected Stories appeared in 1946, but
then it wasn't until 1984's The Crystal
Fountain that her work appeared in print again. In 2017 Persephone published
a new collection called The Journey
Home and Other Stories.
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WHITBY, BEATRICE [JANIE] (c1856 – 20 Jan 1931)
(married name Hicks)
1880s – 1910s
Daughter and wife of doctors, and author of about a
dozen novels which ODNB describes as "intelligent,
very mildly feminist fiction". Titles include The Awakening of Mary Fenwick (1889), Part of the Property (1890), Sunset
(1897), Bequeathed (1900), Flower and Thorn (1901), The Whirligig of Time (1906), The Result of an Accident (1908), and Rosamund (1911).
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WHITE, AGNES ROMILLY (4 Aug 1872 – 11 Jun 1945)
1930s
Irish author of two novels—Gape Row (1934) and Mrs. Murphy
Buries the Hatchet (1936). Both were reprinted in the 1980s by White Row
publishers in Belfast. That publisher described the first book as "[a]
boisterous, rich, nostalgic book which immerses the reader in the cheerful
chaos of everyday life in a small Irish villlage on the eve of the First
World War." The second takes place in the same village ten years after
the war has ended.
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WHITE,
ANTONIA (31 Mar 1899 – 10 Apr 1980)
(pseudonym of Eirene
Adeline Hopkinson, née Botting, earlier married names Green-Wilkinson and
Smith)
1930s - 1970
Translator and novelist best known for her debut, Frost in May (1933), an account of a
young girl in a Catholic boarding school, which has the distinction of having
been chosen as the very first Virago reprint and has been called the female
equivalent of Joyce's Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man. White was by all counts a troubled soul—she was
committed to Bethlem Hospital (aka "Bedlam") for several months in
1922, suffered lifelong anguish due to doubts about her Catholicism, and had
troubled relationships with men (husbands and otherwise) and with her
children. Her personal turmoil
prevented her from publishing a second novel until The Lost Traveller in 1950, a sort of sequel to Frost in May (though the main character
has a different name). She continued the story in two more novels, The Sugar House (1952) and Beyond the Glass (1954). She also
published a story collection, Strangers
(1954). She worked on but never completed an additional novel, a portion of
which was published along with her memoirs in As Once in May (1983). She also wrote two children's books—Minka and Curdy (1957) and Living with Minka and Curdy: A Marmalade
Cat and His Siamese Wife (1970). Her diaries were published in the early
1990s. As a translator, White is known for her English translations of
multiple works by Colette, as well as the likes of Maupassant, Voltaire, and
Marguerite Duras.
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WHITE,
CONSTANCE MARY (2 Nov 1903 – 12 Sept 2004)
(née Lockett)
1930s – 1970s
Author of more than 40
volumes of fiction. Apart from five hospital stories, beginning with Cadet Nurse at St. Mark's (1958),
which seem to have been marketed to adults, her work was primarily for
children, many for the "teen" market that publishers had only just
discovered. Sims & Clare counted 17 girls' school stories, often with
creative settings. These include A
Sprite at School (1947), Ponies at
Westways (1949), four books set in a ballet school (1951-58), Film Stars at Riverlea (1952), Schoolgirl Reporter (1953), and School Afloat (1965), about a school
on a cruise ship. Non-school titles include The Adventurous Three (1939), Set
to Music (1954), Lynne Goes East
(1959), Rashid to the Rescue
(1961), The House with Blue Shutters
(1969), and Mystery of Matmos
(1970).
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WHITE,
DOROTHY VERNON [HORACE] (31 Jan 1877 – 27 Jul 1967)
(née Smith)
1900s – 1910s
Author of three novels—Miss Mona (1907), Frank
Burnet (1909), and Isabel
(1911). Her Times obit describes Frank Burnet as "a moral fable
about weakness and strength of character, written with great intelligence and
gusto." At age 30, she married William Hale White, who wrote fiction as
"Mark Rutherford" and was 45 years older than she. He died only two
years later, and she stopped publishing fiction. However, her Times obit also singles out The Groombridge Diary (1924), a
powerful account of their life together. For many years, White took Bible
classes for impoverished youths, and wrote about her experiences in Twelve Years with My Boys (1912).
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WHITE, ETHEL
LINA (2 Apr 1876 – 13 Aug 1944)
1920s – 1940s
Author of seventeen
novels, many of them thrillers involving young women in peril. By far her
best remembered work is The Wheel Spins
(1936), the source for Alfred Hitchcock's film The Lady Vanishes (1938, many reprints of Wheel make use of Hitchcock's title), which deals with the
disappearance of a governess from a moving train. Hitchcock adapted the novel
freely. White's first major success was Some
Must Watch (1933), which was also destined to be made into a famous
film—Robert Siodmak's The Spiral
Staircase (1948, subsequent reprints also make use of this title), about
a young woman spending the night in a remote Cornwall mansion, whose fellow
guests include a serial strangler. The
Third Eye (1937), reprinted by Greyladies, is about a young games
mistress at a girl's school going up against the evil second-in-command of
the school. And While She Sleeps
(1940), according to Contemporary
Authors, is about a woman
"randomly picked to be the victim of a murder. … [A]s one irritation
after another plagues her on the trip, she feels her luck has dried up.
Unbeknownst to her, however, each of these annoyances actually save her from
becoming the victim of foul play." White's other titles are The Wish-Bone (1927), 'Twill Soon Be Dark (1929), The Eternal Journey (1930), Put Out the Light (1931), Fear Stalks the Village (1932), The First Time He Died (1935), Wax (1936), The Elephant Never Forgets (1937), Step in the Dark (1938), She
Faded Into Air (1941), Midnight
House (1942), The Man Who Loved
Lions (1943), and They See in
Darkness (1944).
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WHITE,
HEATHER (12 Feb 1902 – 2 Jan 1979)
(pseudonym of Jess[ie]
Mary Mardon Ducat, married name Foster)
1920s – 1950s
Author of 12 works of
fiction, mostly for children. She wrote several Guiding adventures, as well
as two school stories—The New Broom at
Prior's Rigg (1938) and The Two B's
and Becky (1939). Her first book, The
Extravagant Year (1929), seems to be an adult novel, and The Golden Road (1931) may be as well.
Others include Daffodil Row (1937),
Watersmeet (1940), Rowan in Search of a Name (1941), and Holiday in Rome (1955).
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WHITE,
SYLVIA SCOTT (dates unknown)
1960s
Author of two girls' pony
stories—Ten-Week Stables (1960) and
its sequel, Pony Pageant (1965).
See here for more details.
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WHITEHEAD,
ELIZABETH (dates unknown)
1940s
Author of one children's
title, Adventurous Exile (1946),
about a party of English schoolgirls and teachers trapped in France during
World War II. There are a couple of religious-themed titles with similar
author names, but it's unclear if they're by the same person.
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WHITEHEAD, KATE (5 Aug 1896 – 22 Feb 1978)
(married name Oxley)
1920s – 1930s
Wife of Selwyn Oxley, a pioneer educator of the
deaf. Author of two novels, The King's
Legacy (1928) and For Prince
Charlie (1929), and several children's books about cats, including Stubby: The Story of a Cat as Told by
Himself (1931) and Kellyann: Being
the Story of a Manx Cat (1933).
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Whitehouse,
Peggy
see MUNDY-CASTLE, FRANCES
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WHITELAW, MARGOT (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of more than a dozen short romantic
novels, including The Flirting Bride (1931),
A Wilful Woman (1932), A Broadway Butterfly (1932), The Girl Who Interfered (1932), The Marriage of Mockery (1933), Betty Breaks Away (1935), Beyond Her Reach (1936), Double-Crossed (1937), The Climber (1939),
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WHITHAM,
GRACE I[SABELLE]. (7 Feb 1874 – 16 Nov 1965)
1900s – 1930s
Author of more than 20
volumes of fiction, mostly historical children's titles. These include Squire and Page: A Story of Olden Days
(1905), Basil the Page: A Story of the
Days of Queen Elizabeth (1908), The
Nameless Prince: A Tale of Plantagenet Days (1912), and When I Was a King (1937). Works that
appear to be for adults include Marjorie
Conyers (1921), As I Hear Tell
(1924), Stinging Nettles (1927),
and Sarah's Husband (1929).
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WHITING,
MARY BRADFORD (1863 – 9 Dec 1935)
1880s – 1930s
Biographer and author of
more than 20 works of fiction for both adults and children. Titles include Stronger than Fate (1889), The Torchbearers (1904), Meriel's Career: A Tale of Literary Life
in London (1914), A Daughter of the
Empire (1919), and a girls' school story called What Hazel Did (1924). She also published two biographical books
about Dante.
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WHITLOCK, PAMELA (21 Mar 1920 – 3 Jun 1982)
1930s – 1940s
Novelist and children's author, best known for four
popular children's books co-written with with Katharine HULL, most famously The Far-Distant Oxus (1937), written
when the pair were still teenagers, about six children on their own in
Exmoor. Their other collaborations are Escape
to Persia (1938), Oxus in Summer
(1939), and Crowns (1947). On her
own, Whitlock also published one adult novel, The Sweet Spring (1952). The dust jacket or a 1960 edition of Oxus featured a publisher's advert for
another book by Whitlock, called The
Brockens: A Country Family, to be published the following year, but in
fact this book never seems to have appeared. That the advert contains a
fairly detailed summary of the book suggests it was well under way or ever
finished, but if so it is unknown what became of the manuscript.
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WHITNEY, JANET PAYNE (6 Sept 1889 - 1974)
(née Payne)
1940s – 1950s
Biographer and novelist. A Quaker who married an
American and moved to Pennsylvania, Whitney wrote six novels, some or all
about 19th century Quakers. Titles are Jennifer
(1941), Judith (1944), Intrigue in Baltimore (1952), The Quaker Bride (1954), The Ilex Avenue (1956), and Not for Ransom (1959). She also
published four biographies, including Abigail
Adams (1949).
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Whittingham,
Sara
see BRADLEY, NORAH MARY
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WHITTLE, NORAH [MARGUERITE] (20 Sept 1895 – 24 Jul 1971)
1950s – 1970s
Author of two early children's titles, The Moated Manor and The Ring (both 1950), followed by more
than a dozen novels which seem to be romantic in nature, including Caroline (1964), Grapes from Thorns (1965), Crowsfell
(1967), Poor Little Rich Girl
(1973), and Thyme and Rue (1975).
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WHITTON, BARBARA (1921 – 21 Sept 2016)
(pseudonym of Margaret Hazel Chitty, née Watson)
1940s
Author of a single wartime novel, Green Hands (1943), an enthusiastic
and entertaining tale of a group of girls in the Women's Land Army during
World War II, which went through at least seven printings. Assuming that the
book was based on her personal experiences, it's appropriate that she seems
to have later worked as a florist. (Thank you to Peter Andrews for providing
information about Whitton.)
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WHITTON, [FLORENCE] DOROTHY (16 May 1901 – 31 Oct 1984)
1940s
Author of two novels—White Lady (1946), about which I could find no details, and Halo of Dreams (1948), a historical
novel about a young girl inspired by Joan of Arc who gets involved with
trying to put Henry VI back on the throne.
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WHYTE, CHRISTINA GOWANS (11 Jan 1869 – 18 Jul 1961)
(married name Geddes)
1900s - 1910
Scottish author of seven children's books. Her
debut, The Adventures of Merrywink
(1906), won a £100 Bookman
competition. The others are The
Story-Book Girls (1906), Nina's
Career (1908), Uncle Hilary's
Nieces (1909), For the Sake of
Kitty (1909), The Five Macleods
(1909), and The Girls Next Door
(1910).
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Whyte, Violet
see STANNARD, HENRIETTE ELIZA VAUGHN
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Wick, Stuart
Mary
see FREEMAN, KATHLEEN
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WICKSTEED,
HILDA M[ARY]. (3 Aug 1884 – 23 Oct 1950)
1920s – 1930
Author of three children's
books—Titch: The Story of a Dog
(1920), Titch & Jock (1922),
and Jerry & Grandpa (1930)—as
well as a biography of her father, engineer Charles Wicksteed (1933).
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WILCOX,
BARBARA [MAUD/MAUDE] (1 Jul 1896 – 19 Aug 1964)
(married name Smith)
1940s
Author of four children's
books—Bunty Brown: Probationer
(1940), Bunty Brown's Bargain
(1942), Bunty of the Flying Squad
(1943), and Susan at Herron's Farm
(1946)—as well as cookbooks and non-fiction about rural life with her future
husband.
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WILCOX,
SUSAN (dates unknown)
1950s
Untraced author of a
single girls' school story, Twins at
Highfields (1954).
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WILENSKI,
MARJORIE [ISOLA] (26 Jun 1889 – 25 May 1965)
(née Harland)
1940s
Wife of art critic and historian Reginald Wilenski.
Author of one novel, Table Two
(1942), about a group of women translators in the fictional Ministry of
Foreign Intelligence in London, just before and during the Blitz. I reviewed
it here, and it was reprinted in 2019 as a Furrowed
Middlebrow book from Dean Street Press. On the 1939 England & Wales
Register, she was working as a luggage buyer for a department store
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WILKES, MARY (dates unknown)
1940s
Untraced author of one novel,The Only Door Out (1945), discussed in Anna Bogen's Women's University Fiction, 1880–1945. Other details about her are lacking.
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WILKINSON,
ELLEN [CICELY] (8 Oct 1891 – 6 Feb 1947)
1920s – 1930s
Journalist,
political figure, activist, and author of two novels. She is most widely
known as one of the first women MPs, representing Jarrow, and was part of the
iconic 1936 Jarrow March, about which she published the non-fiction The Town that was Murdered (1939). She
was later a junior minister under Churchill during World War II and became
Minister of Education in 1944, only the second woman to serve as a minister.
Her first novel, Clash (1928), set
during the 1926 General Strike, provides fascinating insight from Wilkinson's
own experiences. Her second novel was a mystery, The Division Bell Mystery (1932), about the murder of a wealthy
financier in the House of Commons.
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WILLANS,
KATHARINE M[ARY]. (27 Aug 1907 – 27 Sept 1965)
(married name Rustige, aka
Martha Holt)
1930s
Author of four novels—Faith Unfaithful (1933), The Proceedings of the Society (1935),
Virgin Martyr (1936), and The Banker and His Daughter (1939),
the last published under her pseudonym.
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WILLARD,
BARBARA [MARY] (12 Mar 1909 – 18 Feb 1994)
1930s – 1990s
Author of more than 70
volumes of fiction. She began with nearly a dozen adult novels, including Love in Ambush (1930), Name of Gentleman (1933), Joy Befall Thee (1934), about a family
of theatrical costumiers, Set Piece
(1938), The Dogs Do Bark (1948),
and Portrait of Philip (1951), about
Philip Sidney. She then turned almost exclusively to children's fiction, and
was most famous for her Mantlemass series, nine tales, beginning with The Lark and the Laurel (1970),
tracing one English family from the 15th to the 17th century. Other children's
titles include Snail and the
Pennithornes (1957), Eight for a
Secret (1960), The Suddenly Gang
(1963), The Richleighs of Tantamount
(1966), The Battle of Wednesday Week
(1968), The Country Maid (1978),
and The Ranger's Daughters (1992).
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WILLCOCKS,
M[ARY]. P[ATRICIA]. [SUSAN] (17 Mar 1869 – 22 Nov 1952)
1900s – 1930s
Critic, biographer,
translator, and author of sixteen works of fiction. Some of her early
fiction, such as Widdicombe (1905)
and A Man of Genius (1908), was
influenced by Hardy. Other titles include The
Sleeping Partner (1919), Ropes of
Sand (1926), Delicate Dilemmas
(1927), and The Cup and the Lip
(1929).
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WILLCOX,
KATHLEEN M[ARY]. (30 Jul 1899 – 24 Apr 1990)
1920s – 1960s
Author of three girls'
school stories—The Mystery of the Third
Form Room (1926), Averil's Ambition
(1927), and The Stanford Twins at St.
Faith's (1934). She is probably the same author who wrote travel books
for children in the 1960s. John Herrington found a newspaper story from 1938
about a court case in which Willcox and a woman with whom she had lived for
five years sued one another for alleged expenses and debts.
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WILLIAMS,
ELMA M[ARY]. (3 Jun 1913 – 3 Aug 1971)
1950s – 1960s
Author of 16 volumes of fiction, some or all of
which appear to be romantic thrillers. Titles of these include The Waiting Years (1957), To Africa—the Bride (1958), Love in a Mist (1960), Strange Legacy (1961), Escape to Death (1961), Tomorrow a Stranger (1962), Owls Do Cry (1964), and Where Is Sylvia? (1967). Paul's Secret Courage (1967) appears
to be her one work for children. In later years, she was better known for her
memoirs about her animal sanctuary, Pant Glas, which overlooked Dovey
Estuary. These titles include Pig in
Paradise (1964), Animals Under My
Feet (1965), Heaven on my Doorstep
(1970), and Ride a Cock Horse
(1971).
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WILLIAMS, GRACE LLOYD (dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of a single short romance, Her Son's Choice (1932).
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WILLIAMS, [ANNIE] MARGUERITE (dates unknown)
1920s – 1940s
Biographer and author of eight novels, possibly with
religious themes—The Garden of Healing
(1925), Splendid Joy (1926), Steeps to the Stars (1927), A Mother of Men (1929), The Hands of a Man (1934), Our Folk (1937), Just Common Clay (1939), and Be
Merry, My Dear (1942). She also published Blazing the Trail: A Pageant of British Baptist History (1940).
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WILLIAMS,
M[ARION]. P[ERCY]. (1920 – 17 Jul 2015)
(née McLoughlin)
1950s – 1970s
Irish author of seven
children's titles—Nigerian Holiday
(1959), All Because of Dash (1960),
Jewel of the Light (1961), Adventures at Sandend (1963), Teenage Talking Point (1964), Terry's Triumphs (1973), and Friends for Jeremy (1975). A 1954
passenger list shows her arriving in the U.K. from a previous home in
Nigeria, planning to settle in Belfast with her missionary husband. She later
lived in Swansea.
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Williams, Peggy
see EVANS, MARGIAD
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WILLIAMS, URSULA MORAY (19 Apr 1911 – 17 Oct 2006)
(married name John)
1930s – 1980s
Illustrator and author of
more than 60 children's titles. Her best known work is probably Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse (1938), about a toy pony
who sets out in the world to make a living. She also published pony stories
and family adventures. Titles include Jean-Pierre
(1931), Anders and Marta (1935), A Castle for John-Peter (1941), Gobbolino the Witch's Cat (1942), The Three Toymakers (1945), The Binklebys at Home (1951), The Binklebys on the Farm (1953), The Moonball (1958), Beware of This Animal (1964), The Cruise of the "Happy-Go-Gay"
(1967), Man on a Steeple
(1971), The Kidnapping of My
Grandmother (1972), No Ponies for
Miss Pobjoy (1975), and Paddy on
the Island (1987).
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WILLIAMS,
WINIFRED (dates unknown)
1930s – 1940s
Author of a story
collection, Fellow-Mortals (1936),
and one novel, The Beehive (1941),
set in a large Yorkshire mill. According to this site, she was born in
Stainland and taught at the Bolton Brow School in Sowerby Bridge, but there
are still too many possibilities in the records to positively identify her.
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WILLIAMS-ELLIS,
[MARY] AMABEL (ANNABEL) [NASSAU] (25 May 1894 – 27 Aug 1984)
(née Strachey)
1920s – 1930s
Cousin of Lytton Strachey as well as Dorothy
STRACHEY and Marjorie STRACHEY. She began writing in collaboration with her
husband, architect Clough Williams-Ellis. She later published numerous
non-fiction works for children, and several collections of fairy tales
because she felt there was “a real need for authentic re-tellings of
traditional tales if Disney and Enid BLYTON were not to reign supreme."
She published five novels, including Noah’s
Ark (1925), about a young couple vainly resisting their instincts to
marry and reproduce, The Wall of Glass
(1927), about class conflict, The Big
Firm (1928), To Tell the Truth
(1933), a fable about communism and capitalism, and Learn to Love First (1939). She published a volume of stories, Volcano (1931), based on a 1928 trip
to Russia. A book of games Williams-Ellis wrote with her husband, In and Out of Doors (1937), was
reportedly popular during World War II as a means of entertaining children
during long nights in air raid shelters. Headlong
Down the Years: A Tale of To-Day (1951), written with her husband, is
described by the Orlando Project as a satire written in the style of Thomas
Love Peacock. I reviewed her first novel here.
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Williamson,
Ethel
see VEHEYNE, CHERRY
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WILLMOT,
[ANNIE] FLORENCE (17 Oct 1857 – 19 Apr 1955)
1900s – 1920s
Author of seven volumes of
Christian-themed children's fiction, including one school story, Care of Uncle Charlie (1912). Other
titles are The Tender Light of Home
(1908), Benedicite: A Karoo Reverie
(1909), Loyal Hearts and True
(1910), The Heart of a Friend: A Story
for Girls (1911), Kitty and Kit
(1912), and Sheila's Inheritance
(1924).
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WILLOUGHBY, [LOUISE] CECILIA (4 Jun 1905 – 26 Aug
1985)
(married name Craven)
1930s
Author of three novels, including Friday's Moon (1932), which the Bookman compared (unfavorably) with
Mary WEBB's Precious Bane. The
others are Mellory's Yard (1934)
and The Silver Fountain (1935).
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WILSON,
DESEMEA (20 Jun 1878 – 16 Mar 1964)
(née Newman, aka Barbara
Desmond, aka Diana Patrick)
1920s – 1940s
Mother of Romilly CAVAN.
Author of more than 30 romantic
novels, most under the name "Diana Patrick", including The Islands of Desire (1920), Dusk of Moonrise (1922), Dreaming Spires (1923), Gay Girl (1927), Outpost of Arden (1930), Fragile
Armour (1936), and A Little Season
(1943).
|
WILSON, G[ERTRUDE].
M[ARY]. (25 Jul 1899 – 13 Jul 1986)
(née Bryant)
1940s – 1970s
Schoolteacher, comic strip
writer, and author of more than two dozen novels, many of them mystery novels
with supernatural elements, often featuring series character Miss Purdy, a
mystery writer herself, and Inspector Lovick. Titles include Risky (1948), Cousin Jenny (1954), Bury
That Poker (1957), It Rained That
Friday (1960), Witchwater
(1961), Murder on Monday (1963), Nightmare Cottage (1963), Cake for Caroline (1967), Death is Buttercups (1969), She Kept On Dying (1972), and Death on a Broomstick (1977). John at
Pretty Sinister has posted enthusiastically about her work—see here, and, inspired by John,
Martin Edwards made Nightmare Cottage
one of his "forgotten books" here.
|
WILSON, JACOBINE MENZIES (1892 - 1955)
(née Napier-Williamson)
1940s
Mother of Jacobine HICHENS. Biographer and author of
four novels. September to September
(1940) is, according to The Tablet,
"the simple story of a prosperous country-dwelling family in the year
between Munich and the outbreak of war." The others are The Eye of a Needle (1942), At First Light (1944), and August at Acrelands (1946).
|
WILSON,
ROMER (26 Dec 1891 – 11 Jan 1930)
(pseudonym of Florence
Roma Muir Wilson, married name O'Brien)
1910s – 1920s
Novelist, playwright, and
biographer, whose fiction often focuses on artists and the impacts of war. Martin Schüler (1918), is about a
relentlessly ambitious German composer, while If All These Young Men (1919), according to ODNB, is
about "the enervating impact of the war on the home front." The
Death of Society (1921), which won the Hawthornden Prize, traces the love
of an Englishman for an older Norwegian women. Her other novels were The
Grand Tour (1923), Dragon's Blood (1926), and Greenlow
(1927). She also published two novellas, Latterday Symphony (1927) and
The Hill of Cloves (1929), as well as three collections of fairy tales
from around the world. Her one biography was All Alone: The Life and
Private History of Emily Jane Brontë (1928). Wilson died of tuberculosis
at age 38.
|
WILSON,
THEODORA WILSON (13 Jan 1865 – 8 Nov 1941)
1900s – 1940
Social worker, Biblical writer, and author of more
than 40 volumes of fiction for children and adults. Among her children's
fiction are two school stories, The
Founders of Wat End School (1932) and The
St Berga Swimming Pool (1939). Other fiction includes T'Bacca Queen (1901), Father M.P. (1904), Sarah the Valiant (1907), Moll o' the Toll-Bar (1911), The Children of Trafalgar Square
(1915), Netherdale for Ever!
(1919), The Undaunted Trio (1923), The Explorer's Son (1928), The Sole Survivor (1935), Margot Fights Through (1936), and The Disappearing Twins: A Lakeland Yarn
(1940). Wilson is discussed in some depth in Rediscovering Forgotten Radicals, edited by Angela Ingram and
Daphne Patai. She was a committed pacifist and a Quaker.
|
WILSON-FOX,
ALICE [THEODORA] (1863 – 4 Dec 1943)
(née Raikes)
1900s – 1920s
Author of about 10 works of fiction for adults and children,
including The General's Choice (1905), A Dangerous Inheritance (1909),
Hearts and Coronets (1910), Love in the Balance (1911), A
Regular Madam (1912), Too Near the Throne (1918), and Charmian:
Chauffeuse (1925).
|
WILTSHIRE, MARY (1887 – 7 May 1958)
(pseudonym of Frances Mary Isborn)
1920s – 1940s
Cellist, music teacher, and author of ten novels,
often set in and around Wiltshire. Titles are Patricia Ellen (1924), Thursday's
Child (1925), The Lesser Breed
(1926), The Burying Road (1928), He Who Come After (1931), John Quaintance (1932), Heritage (1933), Cockle and Barley (1935), To-Morrow
(1938), and These Maintain the City
(1947).
|
WINCH, EVELYN M. (17 Jul 1895 – 23 May 1939)
(pseudonym of Marie Elspeth Agnes Winch, née
Makgill)
1920s – 1930s
Born in Auckland to British parents, but living in
Scotland by age 4. Author of 16 novels, most of them romantic with mystery
and suspense elements. Titles include The
Mountain of Gold (1928), The
Hunting of Hilary (1929), Enemy's
Kiss (1935), The Luck Shop
(1935), The Dark Path (1936), Passport to Happiness (1937), Happily Ever After (1938), and Mankiller (1939). In 1939, with mental
health issues exacerbated by overwork and anxieties about the approaching
war, Winch committed suicide. Steve at Bear Alley wrote at some length about
her here.
|
Winch, John
see BOWEN, MARJORIE
|
WINGATE, LITITIA BERYL (11 Dec 1881 – 24 Oct 1944)
(née Tucker, aka Mrs. Alfred Wingate)
1920s – 1930s
Novelist and historian who specialized in writing
about China. Her six novels are A
Servant of the Mightiest (1927), about Genghis Khan, Jên (1928), about Marco Polo, Before
Sunset (1929), Thereabouts
(1933), London Luck (1933), and Within a Generation (1939).
|
WINNCROFT,
EILEEN (dates unknown)
(pseudonym of Martha
Blount)
1930s
Author of two novels—Be a Gent, Little Woman, Be a Gent
(1938) and Angels in Ealing (1939).
According to the Observer, the
first is "the haphazard story of a young woman journalist with two
children (each by a different husband), who is forced to rid herself of a
charming drone and his poisonous mother." A copyright entry provides the
author's real name and notes that she was living in Buckinghamshire, but I
haven't been able to trace her in public records.
|
Winstanley,
Edith Maud
see HULL, E[DITH]. M[AUDE].
|
WINSTANLEY,
LILIAN (18 Nov 1875 – 28 Sept 1960)
1900s, 1920s
Literary scholar, poet, and author of five novels—Stolen Banns (1907), The Winged Lion (1908), The Scholar Vagabond (1909), The Double Disappearance (1925) and The Face on the Stair (1927). One
wonders if the latter two could be mysteries or thrillers. She wrote several
acclaimed critical works about Shakespeare, as well as volumes on Shelley and
Tolstoy.
|
Winter, John
Strange
see STANNARD, HENRIETTE ELIZA VAUGHN
|
Winterton, Mark
see KIDD, BEATRICE ETHEL
|
WOGAN, JANE
REES (13 Jul 1899 – 17 Nov 1979)
(pseudonym of Janet Evelyn
Cousins)
1930s
Author of two historical
novels—Go Down, Moses (1936) and Green Heritage (1937)—both apparently
set in Jamaica after the abolition of slavery.
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WOLFE,
ELIZABETH [SOPHIA FRANCIS] (8 Mar 1898 – 18 Jan 1966)
(née Heygate, aka Evylyn
Fabyan [with French author Fabienne Lafargue])
1940s
Sister of novelist John E.
M. Heygate, reportedly the model for John Beaver in Evelyn Waugh's A Handful of Dust. Wolfe co-authored,
with French author Fabienne Lafargue, several novels under the pseudonym
Evylyn Fabyan. John Herrington found traces of a joint contract with the two
for Painted Toys (1940), The Varleys of the New Forest (1941), I Do Betray (1942), and In Loving Thee (1943). It's not clear
whether a fifth novel using the name, Margot
(1945), is also by both authors. According to a blurb, The Varleys of the New Forest is set in and around the movie
industry in Hollywood.
|
WOOD, LESLEY
(dates unknown)
1920s
Author of a single girls'
school story, The Tangled Twins
(1928).
|
WOOD, LORNA
M[ARY]. (16 Jun 1913 – 10 Dec 2010)
(married name Swire)
1930s – 1970s
Author of more than 20
volumes of fiction, best known for her series of children's books about the
"hag" Dowsabel, which included The
People in the Garden (1954), The
Hag Calls for Help (1957), Holiday
on Hot Bricks (1958), Seven-League
Ballet Shoes (1959), Hags on
Holiday (1960), Hag in the Castle
(1962), Rescue by Broomstick
(1963), and Hags by Starlight
(1970). Her first published title was The
Crumb-Snatchers (1933), a novel which the Spectator called "vivacious." Two subsequent titles, Gilded Sprays (1935) and The Hopeful Travellers (1936), appear
to also be for adults. Her childhood, which she described in a Contemporary Authors entry, was
clearly unconventional—no formal education, raised in a home without gas or
electricity, then discovered as a musical prodigy and giving regular
concerts. She and her husband visited Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and
she contributed a piece about their experiences, "Correspondent's
Wife," to the 1939 anthology Nothing
But Danger.
|
WOOD, MOLLY
(19 Oct 1909 – 16 Oct 1994)
(married names Phillips
and Troke, aka Hester Bourne, aka Lyn Arnold)
1940s, 1960s – 1970s
Author of four early
novels as Lyn Arnold—Joy as It Flies
(1940), The Home-Coming (1943), Tea with Lemon and Flash of Joy
(1943), and Holiday from Life
(1945), followed by seven later crime and romance novels as Hester Bourne—The Spanish House (1962), In the Event of My Death (1964), Where Is Evie Alton? (1968), After the Island (1969), The Red Raincoat (1970), A Scent of Roses (1971), and The House Across the Water (1972).
Could she have used other pseudonyms in the years in between?
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WOODGATE, MILDRED VIOLET (20 Mar 1886 – 27 Feb 1978)
(aka Oliver Barton)
1920s – 1930s
Author of numerous biographies of religious figures,
as well as at least eight novels, including mysteries and adventures. Steve
at Bear Alley discussed her here a couple of years ago. He describes The Two Houses on the Cliff (1931) as
a mystery with romantic elements, and quotes a review of Pauline's Lady (1931) that compares it to the earlier works of M.
E. Braddon. Other titles are The
Children of Danecourt Park (1924), The
Eye of the Peacock (1928), The
Secret of the Sapphire Ring (1930), The
City of Death (1934), The Silver
Mirror (1935), and The Ring of Fate
(1939).
|
WOODHAM-SMITH,
CECIL [BLANCHE] (29 Apr 1896 – 16 Mar 1977)
(née Fitzgerald, aka Janet
Gordon)
1930s – 1940s
Best known as the author
of four acclaimed historical volumes—Florence
Nightingale 1820-1910 (1950), The
Reason Why (1953), about the Light Brigade, The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845-9 (1962), and Queen Victoria: Her Life and Times Vol. 1 (1972) (she died before
completing a planned volume 2)—she began her career with three pseudonymous
novels—April Sky (1938), Tennis Star (1939), and Just Off Bond Street (1940). In an
advertisement, the last of these was described as "The happiest kind of
escapist reading—a vivid, fast-moving love story of Elizabeth and Larry, told
in a series of enthralling episodes." A blurb for the first calls her
"a writer whose short stories are famous on both sides of the
Atlantic."
|
WOODHOUSE,
RENA (3 Sept 1898 – 21 Aug 1965)
(full name Rena de Vere
Woodhouse, Baroness Terrington, née Swiney, other married names Howell,
Humphrey, and Billingham, aka Rena Woodhouse)
1930s
Journalist, socialite, and
author of two novels—All That For
Nothing (1931), in which she stated that she had tried to capture the
spirit of her youth, and It Happened to
Me (1937), the latter as Rena Woodhouse. Her third marriage was to Harold
James Selbourne Woodhouse, 2nd Baron Terrington, but their wedded bliss was
short-lived as he soon after spent several years in prison.
|
Woodroffe,
Daniel
see WOODS, MARY
|
WOODS,
MARGARET LOUISA (20 Nov 1855 – 1 Dec 1945)
(née Bradley)
1880s – 1920s
Poet and author of ten volumes of fiction. Her
well-received debut, A Village Tragedy
(1887), deals with the plight of an unwed mother. The Vagabonds (1894) deals with a group of circus performers. The Invader (1907) is the tale of a
woman whose hypnotism results in a sexually free alternate personality. Other
novels are Esther Vanhomrigh
(1891), Sons of the Sword (1901), The King's Revoke (1905), A Poet's Youth (1923) and The Spanish Lady (1927). Come Unto These Yellow Sands (1915) is
a collection of children's tales with supernatural themes. She also published
a story collection, Weeping Ferry and
Other Stories (1897).
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WOODS, MARY
(c1866 - ????)
(née Woodroffe, aka Daniel
Woodroffe, aka Mrs. J. C. Woods)
1890s – 1910s, 1930s
Author of at
least five novels as Daniel Woofroffe—Her
Celestial Husband (1895), Tangled
Trinities (1901), The Beauty Shop
(1905), The Rat-Trap (1912), and The Quicksand (1933)—and one as Mrs.
J. C. Woods, The Evil Eye (1903).
|
WOODTHORPE,
GERTRUDE [IRENE] (7 Aug 1888 – 1 Mar 1977)
1930s
Author of one volume of
poetry, Sunflower and Elm (1930),
and one novel, Spring Head (1935),
the latter about a young girl destined to marry the elderly widower of her
good friend. It received an enthusiastic review from the Observer, a paper for which Woodthorpe was herself a reviewer.
|
WOODWARD, AMY [LUCY] (17 Jun 1883 – 23 Jan 1974)
(née Temple)
1930s – 1950s
Author of nearly 20 volumes of fiction for children
and adults. Titles include The Treasure
Cave (1931), The Missing Diamonds
(1934), The Two Adventurers (1934),
The Quest (1938), Michael Drives the Car (1939), Mrs. Bunch's Caravan (1940), The Serpents (1947), and The Haunted Headland (1953). Life Is Sweet: The Intimate Diary of an
Author's Wife (1943) is presumably non-fiction, but if so I haven't
determined who her author husband was.
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WOOLF, BELLA
SIDNEY (1876 – 24 Nov 1960)
(married names Lock and
Southorn)
1890s – 1930
Sister of Leonard Woolf. Travel writer and author of
nearly a dozen children's books. Titles include Jerry and Joe: A Tale of the Two Jubilees (1897), All in a Castle Fair (1900), Dear Sweet Anne, or, The Mysterious Veres
(1906), The Twins in Ceylon (1909),
More About the Twins in Ceylon
(1911), The Golden House (1912),
and Chips of China (1930). Her
travel writing includes the first Western guidebook to Ceylon, How to See Ceylon (1914), as well as Killarney and Round About (1901), Eastern Star-Dust (1922), and Under the Mosquito Curtain: Sketches of
Life in the East (1935).
|
WOOLF,
[ADELINE] VIRGINIA (25 Jan 1882 – 28 Mar 1941)
(née Stephen)
1910s – 1940s
A central
figure in 20th century British literature, Woolf published ten novels, as well
as short fiction, voluminous essays and reviews, biography, a play, and a
famous diary spanning most of her career. Her novels are The Voyage Out (1915), Night
and Day (1919), Jacob's Room
(1922), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando
(1928), The Waves (1931), Flush
(1933), The Years (1937), and Between the Acts (1941). She wrote two
very famous long essays, A Room of
One’s Own (1929), about the difficulties for women of being creative
artists, and Three Guineas (1938),
a passionate condemnation of war and fascism. So much critical and
biographical work on Woolf exists that it's impossible to even approach here,
but Hermione Lee's biography (1996) is an excellent place to begin.
|
WOOLFITT, SUSAN (13 May 1907 – 29 Aug 1978)
1940s
Memoirist and author of one children's title, Escape to Adventure (1948), about
youngsters having adventures on the canals of England. This presumably draws
on her own experiences as a canal boat worker during World War II, recounted
in her memoir Idle Women (1947).
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WORGER, BIDDY (6 Jun 1891 – 8 Sept 1958)
(full name Edith Worgel, née Wotzel, earlier married
name Gaskins)
1930s
Author of four humorous novels—A Page from Life (1933), Bessie
the Bus (1934), Dusky Ladies
(1935), and The Memoirs of Bartimus
Winkle (1936). Her second husband was a doctor and she apparently spent
some years in the Medical Service in Fiji, where some of her fiction appears
to be set.
|
WORSLEY-GOUGH, BARBARA [KATHLEEN] (29 Jul 1903 – 10
Oct 1961)
(married name Hale)
1930s – 1950s
Author of seven well-received humorous novels and
two mysteries, as well as books on cooking and fashion. A Feather in Her Cap (1936) is the tale of several Bright Young
Things on a month-long jaunt to Austria, while The Sly Hyena (1951), according to the West Australian, "tells of life in London today, with
excursions to country houses which include a castle in Ireland and a whimsy
cottage in the Surrey hills." I reviewed the former here. The other novels are Public Affaires (1932), Sweet
Home (1933), Nets to Catch the Wind
(1935), Learn to Be a Lady (1938),
and Old Father Antic (1955). Her
two mysteries are Alibi Innings
(1954, reprinted by Penguin), set in the world of cricket, and Lantern Hill (1957), apparently set in
the pop music industry.
|
WRAY, I. (20
Apr 1894 – 14 Feb 1969)
(pseudonym of Iris Elaine
Bickford, married name Palliser)
1930s
Author of
two mystery novels. The Vye Murder
(1930) was praised by The Spectator
for its portrayal of women, and Murder—and
Ariadne (1931), about a murder following a "rowdy house party",
was praised by the West Australian
as "ingeniously constructed".
|
WRIGHT,
CATHERINE [MARY] (22 Jan 1907 – 13 Feb 1985)
(née Pearson)
1930s
Author of three novels—Garment of Repentance (1935), Primroses and Peacocks (1936), and Odd Man for Dinner (1936)—about which
details are lacking. Her granddaughter is Daphne Wright, who publishes crime
fiction under her own name and several pseudonyms.
|
WRIGHT,
CONSTANCE [METCALFE] HAGBERG (12 Aug 1862 – 11 Jan 1949)
(née Lockwood, earlier
married name Lewis)
1920s
Not to be confused with
American author Constance Choate Wright. Author of one children’s book, Tales of Chinese Magic (1925), and one
novel, The Chaste Mistress (1930),
about the 1779 murder of Martha Ray, which has also been memorialized by
Wordsworth and discussed by Elizabeth JENKINS.
|
WRIGHT,
DOROTHY (1910 – 1996)
1930s, 1950s
Teacher and writer on
basketmaking, playwright, screenwriter, and author six novels. The Gentle Phoenix (1938), a comedy
about a young woman from a family of artists, earned a comparison to Margaret
KENNEDY's The Constant Nymph. Laurian and the Wolf (1957) is about a
couple of young newlyweds on honeymoon in Italy and back home in London. Among the Cedars (1959) is about the
neglected daughter of a divorced couple, who spends a summer in Austria with
a young widow and her family. Her other novels are Shadows in Sunlight (1936), Queens
Wilde (1950), and Advance in Love
(1953). In spite of a mini-bio here, which provided the dates
shown above, I've so far been unable to trace her in public records.
|
WRIGHT, ESTHER TERRY (17 Jan 1913 – Oct 1984)
(married name Hunt)
1940s – 1950s,
1970s
Author of three novels. Pilot's Wife's Tale (1942) is a more or less autobiographical
portrayal of her pilot husband's injuries and recovery after being shot down
during the Battle of Britain. The Prophet
Bird (1958), about a couple struggling in the postwar years, is,
according to the author's son, also autobiographical in theme. Her last, A Vacant Chair (1979), received an
amusing review in the Glasgow Herald:
"Blowed if I know how to describe A
Vacant Chair, a rare venture into fiction (only her third in over 30
years) by Esther Terry Wright. She's an original, no mistake about that, and
these random gatherings about Roof and Arfur, who run a tiny flower shop near
Covent Garden, are full of irrelevant joys." Following her divorce,
Wright took her first job at the age of 46, going to work at the BBC. (Thank
you to Charles Hunt for his information about his mother and her books.)
|
WRIGHT,
FRANCES C[AMILLIA]. (dates unknown)
1950s
Untraced author of one
school story listed by Sims and Clare, The
Mystery of the Trees (1954), and its sequel, The Mystery of the Lovelace Luck (1957), a non-school story in
which the three main characters are on holiday together. [Thank you to Nicola
Davies for her information on these titles.]
|
Wright,
Francesca
see ROBINS DENISE NAOMI
|
WYATT,
[MARY] ISABEL (22 Oct 1901 – 9 Jul 1992)
(née Foster)
1930s – 1970s
Children's author and popular reteller of legends
and folklore for children. Titles include The
Book of Fairy Princes (1949), Seven-Year-Old
Wonder Book (1958), The Dream of
King Alfdan (1961), King
Beetle-Tamer and Other Lighthearted Wonder Tales (1963), and The Witch and the Woodpecker (1970).
She also published non-fiction analyses of Shakespeare and the legends of King
Arthur. Two early titles published by Hodder & Stoughton—Maid's Malady (1930) and Cheese Carnival (1934)—appear to be
novels, but little information is available beyond the fact that the former
may be a dialect novel set on "the moors."
|
WYCHWOOD, SUSAN
(dates unknown)
1930s
Untraced author of a
single girls' school story, French
Leave (1936), set in a small boarding school in a French provincial town.
I wrote a bit about it here.
|
WYLD, DOREEN
(DORIS) [ELISE] (8 Oct 1897 – 6 Jul 1969)
1950s
Author of two girls'
school stories which, according to Sims & Clare, were published in
reverse order, with Hilary Takes a Hand
(1952) beginning the major plotlines and The
Girls of Queen's Mere (1950) concluding them.
|
Wylde, Katharine
see COLVILL, H[ELEN]. H[ESTER].
|
WYLIE,
I[DA]. A[LEXA]. R[OSS]. (16 Mar 1885 – 4 Nov 1959)
1910s – 1950s
Suffragist, popular short story writer, and author of more
than 30 works of fiction. Towards
Morning (1918) was praised as a relatively balanced portrayal of post-WWI
Germans. The Bookman called Ancient Fires (1924) "[a]n
exquisite love story set in a modern background that smacks nevertheless of
witch craft and medievalism and strange, sinister powers." Keeper of the Flame (1942) was made
into film of the same name starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy.
Other titles include The Native Born,
or, The Rajah's People (1910), The
Red Mirage (1913), Tristam Sahib
(1917), The Dark House (1922), The Silver Virgin (1929), Furious Young Man (1936), Strangers Are Coming (1941), Where No Birds Sing (1947), and Claire Serrat (1959).
|
WYLLARDE,
DOLF (3 Apr 1871 – 10 May 1950)
(pseudonym of Dorothy
Margarette Selby Lowndes)
1890s – 1930s
Sister of Armine GRACE.
Author of more than 40 volumes of fiction which, according to OCEF, span "both exotic tales and
more serious examinations of the predicament of single women." Titles
include A Lonely Little Lady
(1897), As Ye Have Sown (1906), The Unofficial Honeymoon (1911), Youth Will be Served (1913), Exile: An Outpost of Empire (1916), The Lavender Lad (1922), The Water Diviner (1923), The Career of Beauty Darling (1926), Miss Pretty in the Wood (1929), The Girl Groom (1936), and Claimed Under Heriot (1939). Among her
books were at least two for children—Things
(1915) and They Also Serve: A Story for
Girls (1924).
|
Wyndham, Esther
see LUTYENS, MARY
|
WYNNE, ALICE
CLARA VERONICA (2 Dec 1889 – 4 Mar 1969) & EMILY ADELAIDE (11 Jun 1871 – 12
Jun 1958)
1920s
Sisters and authors of a
single novel, Every Dog (1929), a
far-fetched-sounding farce about a businessman
trying to escape his responsibilities. The
Spectator called it “tedious, though funny in places.” Although their
substantial age difference made it plausible for them to be mother and
daughter, they are both clearly on the 1901 census with their parents.
|
WYNNE, MAY (1 Jan 1875 – 29 Nov 1949)
(pseudonym of Mabel
Winifred Knowles, aka Lester Lurgan)
1900s – 1940s
Enormously
prolific author of nearly 200 books in all, including adult romance and
mystery and children's adventure and holiday stories as well as numerous
girls' school stories. In the early 1910s, she published six novels under her
Lurgan pseudonym. Among her numerous titles are Ronald Lindsay (1905), The
Red Fleur-de-Lys (1912), The Hero
of Urbino (1914), Roseleen at
School (1920), The Spendthrift Duke
(1921), Peggy's First Term (1922), Jean Plays Her Part (1926), Plotted in Darkness (1927), Belle and Her Dragons (1931), The Unseen Witness (1932), Two Maids of Rosemarkie (1937), Sadie Comes to School (1941), The Terror of the Moor (1943), and The Unsuspected Witness (1945).
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WYNNE, PAMELA (15 Apr 1879 – 29 Jan 1959)
(pseudonym of Winifred Mary Scott, née Watson)
1920s – 1950s
Author of more than 60 romance novels. Her first
success was Ann's An Idiot (1923),
which was filmed as Dangerous Innocence.
Other titles include Penelope Finds Out
(1926), Love In A Mist (1932), Love Begins At Forty (1936), and Merry Widows (1943).
|
WYNNE-TYSON,
ESMÉ (29 Jun 1898 – 17 Jan 1972)
(pseudonym of Dorothy
Estelle Esmé Innes Ripper, married name Tyson, aka Esnomel, aka Amanda, aka
Diotima)
1920s
Child
actress, playwright, philosopher, and novelist. Security (1927) is, according to its jacket blurb, about the
"lengths a woman will go to to ensure security for herself and her
children when it is jeopardised by the sins of the father." Quicksand (1927) was an adaptation of
a play she co-wrote with Noël Coward. Three more novels—Momus (1928), Melody
(1929), and Incense and Sweet Cane
(1930)—followed, before she began to focus on journalism and philosophy. She
later wrote three more philosophical novels with John Davys Beresford—Men in the Same Boat (1943), The Riddle of the Tower (1944), and The Gift (1947)—though according to ODNB they collaborated on seven more
that were published under Beresford's name only. She used her Amanda
pseudonym for children's stories and her Diotima pseudonym for journalistic
work.
|
WYNNE-WILLSON, D[OROTHY]. [MARY] (22 Feb 1909 – 25
Feb 1932)
1930s
Author of a single novel, Early Closing (1931), an adult novel set in a boys' school which
was a selection of the Book Society. She died of influenza the following year
having just turned 23. Poignantly, she had a twin sister who lived until
1996. A memoir of Willson was published by novelist and bibliophile Michael
Sadleir. I wrote in more detail about the novel and her tragic death here.
|
YARDLEY,
MAUD H[OGARTH]. (6 Mar 1867 – 1 May 1954)
(née Crofts)
1900s – 1910s
Novelist whose first book, Sinless (1906), is described by OCEF: "in which a man returns from India after ten years to
meet his wife, with another man identically circumstanced, meets the wrong
one in the fog at Charing Cross station, and spends the night with her by
mistake. By the end they have contrived to shake off their other halves and
are living happily ever after." Others are Nor All Your Tears (1908), To-day
and Love (1910), Love's Debt
(1913), For You (1913), Because (1913), At the Door of the Heart (1913), A Man's Life Is Different, or, The Sleeping Flame (1914), Soulmates (1917), and Mrs. John (1919). Her birth record
clearly shows her name as Maud Hogarth Croft, but her marriage record shows
her name as Maude Mannering, and Ancestry trees show her parents as Montagu
Mannering and Esther Croft, suggesting that her parents may not have been
married at the time of ther birth.
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YEO, MARGARET [DOROTHY] (1 Apr 1877 – 12 May 1941)
(née Routledge)
1910s - 1940
Author of Christian-themed biographies and fiction.
Novels include The Comrade in White
(1916), The Abiding City (1916), Salt (1927), A King of Shadows (1928), Wild
Parsley (1929), and Uncertain Glory
(1930).
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YOLLAND, E.
(dates unknown)
1890s – 1910s
Unidentified author of
seven novels, about which little information is available. Her debut, In Days of Strife (1896), is subtitled
"Fragments of fact and fiction from a Refugee's history in France, 1666
to 1685." A bookseller describes Sarolta's
Verdict (1899) as a "Gothic novel set among Hungarian gypsies."
And her final novel, The Struggle for
the Crown: A Romance of the Seventeenth Century (1912), is apparently
aimed at young women and is narrated by a lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth of
Bohemia, the "Winter Queen." The others are Mistress Bridget (1898), Vanity's
Price (1900), The Monk's Shadow
(1902), and Under the Stars (1907).
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YORKE,
CURTIS (1854 – 3 May 1930)
(pseudonym of Susan Rowley
Long, married name Richmond Lee)
1880s – 1920s
Popular
author of dozens of "cheerful, lightweight romances" (OCEF), including Hush! (1888), The Mystery
of Belgrave Square (1889), Bungay
of Bandiloo (1903), Queer Little
Jane (1912), Dangerous Dorothy (1912),
The Level Track (1919), Miss Daffodil (1920), The Woman Ruth (1921), and Maidens Three (1928).
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Yorke,
Jacqueline
see MATTHEWMAN, PHYLLIS
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YORKE, MARGARET (30 Jan 1924 – 17 Nov 2012)
(pseudonym of Margaret Beda Larminie, married name
Nicholson)
1950s – 2000s
Author of more than 40 novels, most of them crime
fiction, often set in English villages, featuring ordinary people driven by
circumstance to crime. She began her career with several works of general
fiction, including Summer Flight
(1957), Deceiving Mirror (1960),
and The Limbo Ladies (1969). I
wrote about the last of these here. Five of her novels from the 1970s feature Oxford
don Patrick Grant, but in most of her work—according to Contemporary Authors—“Yorke was best known as an author of the
‘whydunit,’ rather than the ‘whodunit.’ Few of her plots revolve around
discovering the criminal. Instead the reader watches as the criminal wreaks
havoc—or tries to—on the other characters in the story.” Crime titles include
No Fury (1967), The Small Hours of the Morning (1975),
Death on Account (1979), Find Me a Villain (1983), Speak for the Dead (1988), and Cause for Concern (2001). The five novels featuring Patrick Grant are
Dead in the Morning (1970), Silent Witness (1973), Grave Matters (1973), Mortal Remains (1974), and Cast for Death (1976).
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Young, Diana
see RAYMOND, DIANA
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YOUNG, DIANA
FRANCES (18 Aug 1894 – 24 Feb 1965)
(married name Martienssen)
1930s
Author of seven novels
about which I have little information. Titles are Storm Before Sunrise (1935), The
Door Stood Open (1936), The
Unfinished Symphony (1937), The
Lonely Guest (1937), Stray Cat
(1938), Doves in Flight (1938), and
Son of the Dark (1939).
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YOUNG, ELLA
(26 Dec 1867 – 23 Jul 1956)
1900s, 1920s – 1930s
Poet, Celtic mythologist,
and children's author, born in Ireland but immigrated to the U.S. in the
1920s, where she taught at Berkeley for several years. Her four acclaimed
children's books were The Coming of
Lugh (1909), which was illustrated by none other than Maud Gonne, The Wonder-Smith and His Son (1927), The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales:
Episodes from the Fionn Saga (1929), and The Unicorn with Silver Shoes (1932). Her memoirs were published
as Flowering Dusk (1945).
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YOUNG,
E[MILY]. H[ILDA]. (21 Mar 1880 – 8 Aug 1949)
(married name Daniell)
1910s – 1940s
Author of eleven novels
and two children's books, known for her blending of humor with serious themes of female freedom and
growth. Miss Mole (1930), often
considered her best work, deals with a damaged, outspoken, spinster
housekeeper/companion and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Her other
novels are A Corn of Wheat (1910), Yonder (1912), Moor Fires (1916), A Bridge Dividing (1922, aka The
Misses Mallett), William (1925), The Vicar's Daughter
(1927), Jenny Wren (1932), The Curate's Wife (1934), Celia (1937), and Chatterton Square (1947). Her two children's titles are Caravan
Island (1940) and River Holiday (1942). I wrote a bit about Miss Mole here.
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YOUNG,
F[LORENCE]. E[THEL]. MILLS (28 Aug 1875 – 6 Nov 1945)
1900s – 1940s
Author of more than 50
novels, often set in South Africa and generally romantic in tone, though she
published at least one early sci-fi/fantasy novel called The War of the Sexes (1905). Other titles include A Dangerous Quest (1904), Atonement (1910), The Purple Mists (1914), Beatrice
Ashleigh (1918), Foreshadowed
(1921), The Wine Farm (1924), The Inheritance (1928), The Rich Cargo (1932), Dreamlight (1938), and Two Streams (1945).
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YOUNG, PATRICIA (1921 - ????)
1940s – 1960s
Author of 20 novels, including Narrow Streets (1942), Far
Flung Seed (1943), The Devil and
His Apple (1945), Dockside Symphony
(1947), The Gallant Opportunist
(1949), East of Bow Bells (1950), London's Child (1954), Half Past Yesterday (1959), Taffy (1961), and Sweet the Dream (1961).
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YOUNG, [ALICE] RUTH (26 Jan 1884 – 2 Dec 1983)
(née Wilson)
1920s
Primarily known as a poet, she also published one
novel, The Serpent's Head (1922),
and one children's book, The Sea-Gull
and the Sphinx: A Fairy Story (1924). She later published two
biographies, Mrs. Chapman's Portrait: A
Beauty of Bath of the 18th Century (1926) and The Life of an Educational Worker, Henrietta Busk (1934).
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ZANGWILL, EDITH AYRTON (1875 – 5 May 1945)
1900s –
1920s
From a family of pioneering women (her mother was a
doctor, her stepmother a scientist), Zangwill was a suffragist and activist
as well as author of six novels. Her early novels deal humorously with
women's issues—The First Mrs Mollivar
(1905), for example, is about a woman who marries a widower and finds herself
haunted by his first wife. Later works are more serious, particularly The Call (1924), which deals with the
suffrage movement, and The House
(1928), which deals with her own nervous breakdown. The others are The Barbarous Babes: Being the Memoirs of
Molly (1904), Teresa (1909),
and The Rise of a Star (1918).
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